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Isaak Sirko was many things in his life, a mobster and killer, someone so highly respected among criminals that many chose a different path rather than to cross his. The Ukrainian man basically radiated authority, his suits and looks making him so easy to spot among crowds.
This man killed many people in his life, some so cruelly it left others present speechless. Not to mention the absolute skill and luck it took him to escape the bar brawl Dexter led him into.
And yet…
Here Dexter stands, hand gripping the door handle of his apartment, body halfway in, halfway out, staring at the back of a man with broad shoulders moving around in his kitchen.
Yeah, Dexter obviously knew he would find Isaak fucking Sirko at his place, he was the one letting him stay, doing everything in his power to keep the news away from Deb. But it’s one thing to let someone stay because everyone is after them, you killed their partner and was a witness of them being shot. That doesn’t mean Dexter can’t be surprised to see the grey haired man wear his old clothes and act like he has lived with Dexter for years.
But something deeply bothers Dexter about this whole situation. Isaak Sirko should be scared to have his back turned towards Dexter, to fall asleep under the same roof as him, not knowing what could happen during the night.
Yes, it really, really bothers Dexter. It shouldn’t be like this. Isaak should be dead at the bottom of the sea just like Viktor. Instead, Isaak is making them dinner because he has nothing better to do.
Before Dexter left in the morning, Isaak has jokingly called today their anniversary. It made Dexter’s eyebrows go upwards before he realized it has been a whole month since Isaak took the bullet to his stomach. Since he begged Dexter to do him one last favor and bury him in the sea. But Dexter, maybe for the first time in his life, panicked at the thought of killing someone who actually deserved it, the conversation from the bar still stuck in his head. Yes, Isaak was right, they would make great friends if the circumstances were different and that whole thing clouded Dexter’s mind.
That’s why Dexter dragged him into his car, drove him to a hospital and risked everything in the process.
Dexter couldn’t feel almost anything for the majority of his life but this, this felt like a right move. Isaak was worth the saving.
And it happened, Isaak was saved and Dexter could finally breathe when the nurse happily told him he made it. The same couldn’t be said about Hannah. Deb called right after, her and Jurg were found dead. It moved something in Dexter, making him doubt his whole “I don’t feel anything” mindset, before he quickly shoved the feelings away.
Later, Dexter thought about the whole thing. Maybe it was supposed to happen like this. Life for life, Hannah for Viktor, lover for lover. It weirdly brought peace to Dexter’s mind.
So that’s how Isaak found his way back to Dexter’s home.
“Well, hello there, you,” Isaak says with a smile, breaking Dexter’s thought process. He looks tired, the wound still bothers him along with the fact that everyone from his past is still out for his blood. Dexter feels bad for him which is a very unusual feeling. Strange.
“Hello,” Dexter mutters, finally fully walking in and closing the door behind him. There’s a bag in his hands, new bandages resting inside along with a few painkillers. He puts in onto the counter, making it the only thing between him and Isaak.
Isaak is watching Dexter and Dexter wonders if he thinks the same about him - he probably looks as tired as the grey haired man. Without breaking the shared eye contact, Dexter reaches inside the bag.
“I brought you some things, I noticed you are almost out of bandages,” he mutters and slowly slides the bag towards Isaak who, without any thought, reaches to grab it, misses and makes contact with Dexter’s hands instead. A shiver runs through Dexter.
There it is again. It makes Dexter sigh inside his head although no major changes show on his face, expression still unclear.
It has been happening for the past week. Dexter has pinpointed the first moment last night while he thought about the whole thing. It was on Monday, Isaak was changing his bandage in Dexter’s chair, obviously struggling with the whole process. It was clear the pain was more intense, so without thinking, Dexter went up to the man, swatted his hands away and changed the bandage himself. Nothing weird to do for a new friend, right? Except when Dexter raised his head and locked eyes with Isaak, something shifted in the air. He blinked once, twice and before he could awkwardly run away, Isaak leaned over, raised his right hand and grabbed him at the nape of his neck, squeezed lightly and then quietly muttered a thank you. Nothing between them has been the same since.
Dexter isn’t blind, he could see Isaak’s attractiveness from a mile away the second he met him. It was no wonder people were getting suspicious about a man like him not having any female partners around. The Ukrainian has it all, the looks, charisma and most importantly class.
It wasn’t what drew Dexter in though. Isaak could read him like a book and it made a shiver run down Dexter’s spine. Isaak was right, they are great friends, they understand each other and funnily enough, Dexter now thinks they could be even something more.
The need was almost physically pushing him towards the man at all times. It felt like a hand was grasping his heart as hard as it could, like a tickle at his brain, a quiet whisper in the ear telling him to just go and act.
But Dexter was glued to his spot. It was common knowledge to him that he was able to feel lust, to want someone really, really bad, without feeling any type of love or anything slightly related to the feeling everyone so easily talked about.
And yet, here he stood, hands still touching Isaak’s, trying so hard to move and act.
He can feel how it affects his everyday life now. Dexter’s brain is working overtime every single second of the day. It almost compares to the feeling of not killing anyone for a long period of time. He can feel the uneasiness in his entire body. It’s like a hand is slowly but surely tightening its grip on his throat, leaving him gasping for breath. But when it came to killing, he would just go and feed his dark passenger to satisfy the needs. Hardly solvable in the same way now, though.
But Dexter has thought about it… no, Dexter is thinking about it right now. What if he just reaches over and kisses Isaak? What would happen?
While Dexter’s brain is doing its usual jumps and twists trying to process the situation, Isaak leans forward over the counter and closes the remaining distance between them.
Dexter’s brain goes quiet.
A kiss. Isaak Sirko’s lips are on his and his brain finally goes offline.
Huh.
Dexter has never kissed a man before. It felt so unfamiliar, Isaak’s beard is scratching his freshly shaven face, his lips and the way he kisses makes it so clear it is a man doing this to Dexter. It should’ve been scary. It should’ve Dexter doubting himself and who he really is. But it doesn’t, it feels good… right, even.
All the tension in the air that has been plaguing their every shared step was leading up to this moment and Dexter can only see it now. How embarrassing.
So Dexter leans in, too, and kisses Isaak back. A hand makes its way up to his face, cupping it with so much care that Dexter can’t believe this man has killed so many people with it.
Images flash through Dexter’s head of the very same hand and it genuinely makes him blush. Because in his head, the hand is gripping him hard, moving all over his body. He imagines Isaak looming over him in the bedroom, pushing him into the mattress, muttering sweet nothings in his ear. He can almost hear himself breathe hard and beg for more.
The fantasy is broken by a sudden whimper of pain. Dexter’s eyes shoot open, immediately noticing Isaak’s painful expression. Of course, leaning over a counter with a bullet wound in your stomach isn’t the brightest thing to do.
“Are you okay?” Dexter manages to breathe out, already leaving his place to go around the counter to check on Isaak.
“No, no, I’m fine. It’s fine,” Isaak replies, making sure to smile to calm Dexter down.
“Got a bit carried away,” he adds and grins. He’s already moving back to Dexter then, now both of his hands find their way back onto Dexter’s face and their lips connect again. But Dexter can smell the strong scent of blood in the air and that’s what makes him pull away from Isaak.
“You’re bleeding,” Dexter states and immediately raises Isaak’s… well, his own shirt, to check on the wound.
“Take it as a gift, I know how much you love blood,” Isaak mutters with a stupid smile on his face and Dexter has to look away for a second. The feelings are overwhelming and it’s scaring him a little bit. Isaak only smiled at him and made a stupid blood joke… but it still caused a storm inside Dexter.
These feelings were safely locked in ever since Rita died and now they were screaming at him, they were gnawing at the surface, begging to be unlocked.
So, with the smell of blood in the air and the man’s eyes still tracking his every move, Dexter locks their gazes, kisses Isaak on the mouth and then pulls over his blood stained shirt, exposing Isaak’s upper body right in the middle of the kitchen.
Dexter then silently reaches inside the bag he brought home, pulls out the bandage and bents a little to change the old blood soaked one.
A hand finds its way into Dexter’s hair.
It’s nothing, only a pat on the head, a little caress, nothing else, but Dexter’s heart speeds up to a different level of panic anyway. It feels like Dexter is supposed to say something to that, to react and make Isaak know that it’s okay. But he is pretty sure the taller man can spot the goosebumps it caused.
Dexter stands up properly anyway and dives in for another kiss. Now actually showing the hunger he feels for the man.
That’s when the door opens, revealing a confused Jamie and sleepy Harrison in her hands.
“Uh,” Jamie mutters, frozen in the doorway. It’s one thing to see the guy you work for kissing a stranger in his home and second to see the stranger shirtless, patched up and as confused as you are.
Jamie blinks twice, almost to make sure this was all real and before she can say anything, Isaak is already moving away from Dexter – probably running off to fetch himself another shirt that doesn’t really belong to him.
“I’m sorry, I texted you but I guess you didn’t have time to read it considering you were-… yeah, I’m so sorry Dexter,” Jamie fires out of herself as soon as Isaak vanishes in the bedroom.
“It’s okay, I’m sorry, I forgot about you guys returning back today, hi Harrison,” Dexter replies, moving towards the two of them to hug his son.
“Please know that I’m not going to say anything to anyone about you and Mr. Shirtless,” Jamie promises and Dexter actually believes her. So he just shooks his head to signal that he’s grateful and then Jamie basically flies out of the door to dismantle herself from this weird moment.
Dexter lets a deep breath out, still hugging Harrison close to his chest. Yeah, he might be the worst father ever. Forgetting your own son was supposed to come back home because you were overwhelmingly pinning after a man who was about to kill you a month ago. Great.
Before Dexter could fall back into his head and overstress the situation even more, Isaak returns, now with a shirt on that doesn’t even fit properly. Dexter smiles at that a little bit.
“Hello there, little guy,” Isaak starts with the softest voice Dexter has ever heard come from him. “Look at you being as adorable as your dad,” he then continued, lowering himself a little bit, to look Harrison right in the eyes. The grey haired man then unexpectedly tickled Harrison at the tummy, making him giggle loudly.
Dexter just stares. To be fair, he has never thought about the two meeting. About him letting his own son meet another killer, knowing said killer was ready to sacrifice Deb not even a month ago. But now, Dexter can’t help himself. He smiles fully at the on-going interaction that’s acting out right in front of him. The words were escaping his ears but the utter happiness that radiated from Harrison was enough to warm his confused heart.
Before he can figure out their next step, Isaak is already pulling Harrison out of his arms. There isn’t a single defensive move from Dexter and the information makes him gulp loudly. But the guilt of the non-reaction is not showing up. It’s just not there. Dexter genuinely believes Isaak wouldn’t do anything to either of them. Which is foolish and Dexter knows it.
That man is a killer, whispers Harry’s voice somewhere from behind Dexter. Dexter is already making up an answer inside his head but Harry speaks again. But Isaak keeps his promises. Maybe it’s time to truly believe that, he says and disappears right after.
And Dexter does believe that. Because Isaak is currently holding Harrison with one hand, while the other searches their freezer for the ice cream that he is sure is still inside.
Their freezer. Dexter laughs loudly.
“Stop laughing and come over,” Isaak says when he hears him. “Right, Harrison? Say, dad, let’s eat some well deserved ice cream!” he adds and smiles from ear to ear at Harrison.
So Dexter does exactly that. He joins them in the kitchen, scoops ice cream for the three of them, and brings it over at the floor because Harrison is already looking at the toys Dexter has somehow managed not to clean up. They sit and eat and play. It’s weirdly domestic and Dexter thinks about the other man’s thoughts about this.
Isaak looks happy though. He looks like he could get used to this, to sharing his space with Dexter and most importantly with Harrison.
The idea of telling Deb about the growing feelings he has for Isaak Sirko is a nightmare though. But Dexter is once again ready to risk it because Isaak is still worth it. He is.
That’s why ten minutes later Dexter texts Deb and tells her to meet him tomorrow for a chat. That’s why he lets Isaak stand in the doorway and even join him when he later reads Harrison a bedtime story. That’s why Dexter doesn’t even think twice before entering his own bedroom, which he had so kindly borrowed Isaak for the last month, and before he or Isaak can overthink anything, climbs in the bed with the taller man and closes the remaining distance between them.